The e85 Z4M is the only BMW of this period that uses offset control arm bushings (hole isn’t in the center). BMW did this to add to negative caster, which makes the steering a bit quicker & also more jumpy.

Some people have added these bushings to e46s & non M Z4s in an attempt to alter the handling of those vehicles. There are no real aftermarket control arm bushings for the Z4M. A few companies sell “offset control arm bushings” for e46 that are similar, but they do not say they are compatible with Z4M.

Because the hole is offset, it’s literally impossible to see if the bushing is bad when they are on the car. In fact, even off the car it’s very difficult. The tear happens at the small end of the offset, as in photo 2. Even off the car you can’t really see it. If you load the bushing with a c clamp as in photo 2, then you can see where it’s torn.

I’ve been chasing a vibration during high speed braking for quite a while. I changed pads & rotors a few years ago, & it seemed to go away - or got so much better you can hardly feel it. I’ve resurfaced the rotors, measured runout / thickness variation, hub runout, etc & all good. I bought into the “pad deposit” theory & did all the high speed quick stops to remove it. I’ve replaced aftermarket ceramic pads with semi-mets.

I’ve checked these bushing on the car many times. You can not see any tear. They look fine. Even attempting to “load” them with a pry bar - it’s almost impossible to see or budge the control arm at all to load the bushing. On the car I could see no reason to replace these, they looked good. Other BMWs the bushings are centered and often fluid fluid, making failure easy to see on the vehicle. These are solid rubber.

I removed them from the vehicle & it wasn’t till I loaded them with the clamp I could see both sides are torn. Unfortunately, there are no aftermarket parts for this car, so you have to get BMW control arm bushings & the lolipops for $203. If you had an e46 M3, e46, or e85 Z4 aftermarket parts are available for about $75.